I've only listened once, and it's...alright, I guess? It's no Like Clockwork, which I was listening to immediately before this. There wasn't one song that really stood out as being exceptional. I guess Villains of Circumstance came the closest, but even that one felt like it needed work. But again, only the first listen.

Every Queens album has taken me a while to really appreciate, with the exception of SFTD which I enjoyed straight out of the gate. Lullabies only became one of my favorites in the last year or so. I listened to the self-titled off and on for a couple years before I decided I liked it just as much as SFTD, if not more.

...Like Clockwork took me a while to appreciate. It's still my least favorite Queens album, but I don't think it's bad. I just think that Homme tries hard to grow and make each album different, but my tastes just haven't grown in the same direction. That's my first impression of Villains, as well. There's an obvious amount of craftsmanship in every song. It's pretty unpredictable, and I don't think it's particularly derivative of past Queens work. I think that's a great achievement.

That said, my first impression of this album is that I wouldn't be listening to it if it weren't a Queens album. I'm going to give it its due and listen the poo poo out of it, that's just my first impression. Regardless of whether I like it, I think it's a pretty unique accomplishment that they are still willing and able to create something that sounds fresh, this late in their career.

This one was definitely a grower for me. After a few listens, I like everything except The Way You Used to Do, with Feet Don't Fail Me, Head Like A Haunted House, and The Evil Has Landed being standouts. I did a play through of all their albums this week before the release, and QOTSA has had dry or weird production choices since Songs For The Deaf, and flirted with pop, funk, and other dance-y stuff for the last few albums, so I don't know how much influence the choice in producer had to be honest. If anything, some of the songs take a little while to get going and aren't as immediate as you would expect with someone like Mark Ronson. It's a different album, there's some interesting sounds going on and I dig the grooves and classic feels.

comparing this album to Clockwork is an extremely bad take, from what I've listened to so far they are complete polar opposites.

I'm not personally comparing it to Clockwork, rather just pointing out that I'm not a "I want SFTD pt 2" kind of fan, since Clockwork so was different than their other stuff.

The thing that bothers me about Villains is that it sounds really forced-retro to me. I never, ever got that vibe from any QOTSA song or album. It reminds me of those early 2000s garage rock bands trying too hard to sound like something from the 60s/70s. Whoever said the first single sounds like something in a 2003 iPod commercial is dead on.

First listen for me and it's definitely a case of 'where's the beef?' I know the band have been evolving their sound but there was still beef on Like Clockwork. Slightly less disappointed I didn't get tickets for this tour, so happy they played In the Fade when I saw them on their last album tour

Domesticated Animals, Head Like a Haunted House, and The Evil Has Landed are the only songs I've given a second thought. The rest range from mediocre filler (Fortress) to downright awful (Hideaway). This is the Raditude of QOTSA albums.

I've got mixed feelings after my first listen, but, well, it's a first listen. It's definitely not quite the "fun", upbeat, "rock isn't dead" counterpart to Like Clockwork that I was expecting. Fortress, Hideaway, Villains of Circumstance, and to a lesser extent Un-Reborn Again are all surprisingly atmospheric and midtempo without many memorable guitar riffs. Maybe they'll become memorable later. I guess The Evil Has Landed set a really high standard.

Sir Lemming fucked around with this message at Aug 26, 2017 around 02:08

I've got a case of malt liquor stashed in the trunk, Mr. Marvin Gaye on the CD. We are gonna get all the way down.

I'm digging Fortress and Evil has landed. Can't wait to see them at the peabody here in STL, I've got 10th row tix in the center. I saw them front row live at lolapalooza 03 in STL with Audioslave/Jane's Addiction/Incubus/Jurassic 5, best show I've ever been to. It was during the Songs for the Deaf tour, my ears rang for 3 days afterword. Cornell. I also saw them with the Deftones at the Pageant, that was a killer show too.

ROCK THE HOUSE M.D. fucked around with this message at Aug 26, 2017 around 03:20

I'm not particularly sold after a few listens. I love how they change up their style every album but this one just isn't really a style that stands out much to me. The Evil Has Landed is definitely my favourite track on the album, that's a really good song. Only a couple other tracks have any substance to me, the rest just pass me by honestly. A little disappointed but oh well!

I only just got my first listen to it in this morning. While it did break a streak of great albums for me, that streak was "[Era Vulgaris] is one of my favorite albums" and "[...Like Clockwork] is one of my favorite albums". Maybe I'll like it more on the next few listens through, we'll see.

I only just got my first listen to it in this morning. While it did break a streak of great albums for me, that streak was "[Era Vulgaris] is one of my favorite albums" and "[...Like Clockwork] is one of my favorite albums". Maybe I'll like it more on the next few listens through, we'll see.

Yeah upon listening to this I'd rank it with many of the other ones, but given that my lowest opinion of any of their main albums is "this is a great album" that's not a negative to me.

After listening to the whole thing I'd mainly give this an extremely high B+ to an A-. I loved everything except Domesticated Animals, which felt like a TCV b-side, and Hideaway which just seemed like runoff from what they did with Fortress (for the record, I'm probably in the minority but liked Fortress a whole lot, as it reminded me of Rated-R poo poo or even stuff that Josh did for Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys.) Stuff like Haunted House and Un-Reborn Again sounded like great takes on Dead Kennedys or T.Rex, and Evil Has Landed was just a marvelous road trip of a song. Was also interesting to see how the ending song evolved from way back when Josh was demoing is acoustically.

After listening to it a few times I can say that I like the album and think it's a good entry into their catalogue. Probably won't end up one of my favourites of theirs, but I appreciate them changing it up. It's very punchy and jumpy and there is a lot going on with most of the songs. Only complaints being that the lyrics are not that great and the mix is a little too.. I dunno flat maybe. Fave songs are Fortress, The Evil Has Landed, Villains Of Circumstance and Head Like A Haunted House. I didn't care for The Way You Used To Do when it was first released but now I've grown to like it quite a bit. I think this album may be a grower for a lot of people.

Only complaints being that the lyrics are not that great and the mix is a little too.. I dunno flat maybe.

I think the mix sounding flat and indistinct drags the album down considerably, especially with how weak the guitars sound in this already. I'm having trouble finding the cohesion in 'Villains,' whereas their other albums had pretty clear throughlines and sounds. There feels like a lot of slapdash production choices in this- 'Evil Has Landed' isn't an outstandingly good song or anything, but it's definitely a palette cleanser after 'Hideaway's' stupid Gary Numan synths.

I've listened to this twice through, and it's not especially bad or especially great yet. 'Hideaway' is a really poor outlier, and 'Fortress' and 'Un-Reborn Again' kind of sit right on that line, but at least the rest of the songs have some good kernels that make them worth listening to, even though I don't think any of them capture me entirely- maybe just 'Villains of Circumstance' gets the closest, and 'Domesticated Animals' has a really enjoyable, dumb groovy march quality to it.

I'm confused by this sentence only because I thought people generally started to turn on Weezer after their 2nd album, not their 7th.
Unless you stopped liking Queens since SftD.

This is true but Raditude was the straw that broke the camel's back. It's filled with Rivers Cuomo vanity projects, despised not only by whatever fans they had left, but also Brian Bell and especially Scott Shriner. Rivers had kind of the same excuse for Raditude that Josh has for Villains. "It's just one Weezer album of many more." Meanwhile it sells less than 250k copies and their next single off their next album is one giant apology for it.

This is just my dumb opinion but the production on this album, that Josh insisted upon, sounds like it was product designed to be sold rather than enjoyed. Like hey maybe this song could be cool, but nah my buddy Ronson gets to do what he wants with it in the name of doing something different. Sometimes ideas should just be ideas.

Hi, guy that missed the point. I'll explain more about what I typed into an internet forum below the next quote.

This is true but Raditude was the straw that broke the camel's back. It's filled with Rivers Cuomo vanity projects, despised not only by whatever fans they had left, but also Brian Bell and especially Scott Shriner. Rivers had kind of the same excuse for Raditude that Josh has for Villains. "It's just one Weezer album of many more." Meanwhile it sells less than 250k copies and their next single off their next album is one giant apology for it.

This is just my dumb opinion but the production on this album, that Josh insisted upon, sounds like it was product designed to be sold rather than enjoyed. Like hey maybe this song could be cool, but nah my buddy Ronson gets to do what he wants with it in the name of doing something different. Sometimes ideas should just be ideas.

Maybe it's "missing the point" but Weezer has been loving awful for the majority of their albums so your example is incredibly loving bad altogether. this album just came out, that's kind of different from "band that has been abhorrent for like 5 albums"

The best thing about this album is that it makes me appreciate the other Queens albums so much more. Iím listening to Lullabies now and Everybody Knows That Youíre Insane is easily one of my top 10 songs of theirs. Someoneís In The Wolf might be too.

I'm kinda surprised to see so many people down on this album. I love QotSA but most of their albums take a few listens to click for me, but this one grabbed me right away. Feet Don't Fail Me is a killer opener, too. One of my friends compared it to sounding like a mix of David Bowie and Marilyn Manson and I can kinda see what he's talking about.

I still can't decide, if I like the album or not. It's okay--ish. It just sounds so flat and hollow and I think that's my main gripe with it. These songs will probably work better in a live setting, or so I hope.

It's probably a grower, but I'm not really feeling it right now. "Feet don't fail me" is one hell of an opener, and "The Way you used to" makes a lot of sense tucked right after, with it's upbeat tempo and swing, but I feel it just stagnates right then and there, up until "Head like a haunted house". It's funny because after a few listens Haunted House and Evil sound like they'd fit better on a TCV album. Still, the lyrics are deep and filled with Homme's quick wit, but It still needs that punch the instruments used to have.

I agree with most people here, every QotSA album has had some weird mixing (Especially Era Vulgaris) and it worked really well, but Villains just seems so flat, stale, and way too clean, and in the end, I think that really detracts from this album.

Still gonna give it some tuime, but I don't think Villains will top EV or S/T as my faves.

One of my friends compared it to sounding like a mix of David Bowie and Marilyn Manson and I can kinda see what he's talking about.

That's kinda what bugs me. Not that combination specifically, just that you can nail down what it sounds like. I can't say that about any other QOTSA album. They all sound different from each other, and none of them sound like any combination of other albums/artists, they're all so original and it's what makes me love QOTSA. Villains is the first time where you can say "Oh it sounds like..." or "Oh it's a tribute to.." It's the type of thing that would bug me less if the songs were stronger and sounded better.

Cromulent fucked around with this message at Aug 27, 2017 around 21:59

I haven't made it all the way through in one sitting yet, but I've listened to every song several times, and I think I'm about halfway through deciding what I think about it. Like every QOTSA album, I think it's pretty demanding at first, especially for people who prefer specific parts of their discography (guilty as charged).

I struggled with the production at first, but I actually think it's mostly great. It's ballsy because all the instruments are really exposed. Every instrument seems to fit into its own frequency band and nothing is overpowered in the mix. It's not what I prefer, because I like guitars to be loud, but I can appreciate the choice. I think the only thing I'd change is that the drums should be louder, and equalized with a bit more high end. And I suppose I might bring the vocals down a little. The bass sounds loving incredible, honestly, it's so good.

I had a bunch of other poo poo typed out but honestly I'm trying not to overthink the album at this point. It won't be my favorite QOTSA album, but I also don't think it will be my least favorite.

I've identified my main sticking point with the album, and it's somewhere between "Un-Reborn Again" and "Hideaway". I absolutely love the creepy synth groove that Un-Reborn starts with, but it loses me at the chorus; not the "You can be young again" part, but the other part that repeats over and over till the end of the song. There's not enough interesting going on instrumentally or rhythmically and it kind of feels like Homme on autopilot. (Not the song Autopilot.). And Hideaway pretty much picks up that same rhythm and feel and drags it out even longer. I think if they spent less time on that part of Un-Reborn and put a whole different song after it, the album would fare much better for me.

I personally don't fault the production though. I can't imagine any of the songs sounding better with different production. I think my issues are more with the songwriting.